California beer industry tops economic impact among U.S. states

The brewer's association recently released data on all 50 states (plus the District of Columbia), and the impact of craft beer in each, and California comes out on top. The numbers, based on state craft beer sales and production statistics from 2016 has California in the lead for both number of breweries and overall economic impact.

In 2016, 623 craft breweries were in operation in California and had an economic impact of $7.345 billion. Coming in a close second behind Pennsylvania (3,905,620), California produced 3,295,221 barrels of craft beer during the same time period. Pennsylvania took second in the category of economic impact, at $5.788 billion and seventh for total craft breweries at 205.

Pulling up ranks on the bottom for number of craft breweries is Mississippi with only 9 breweries. Rhode Island had the smallest economic impact with only $152 million.